The Silly Season – Top Ten Countdown

Welcome back to IVA’s Silly Season feature. This is our third of an ongoing series covering and exposing a few or the many instances of the “Silly Season” phenomenon, examples of which certainly aren’t hard to find throughout the mainstream American political media.

Heat Wave 2012! Something about the temperature nationwide is making politicians and the mainstream media covering them overheat and pop off – and we’re here to document and rank the silliness. Without further ado, here are the Top Ten Silly Season moments from American politics and the political media over the last few weeks:

10. A recent “newsworthy” poll revealed iPhone users support President Obama – findings concluded that 49 percent of smartphone owners plan to vote for President Obama while only 31 percent said they will back Romney. Since smartphone use is rapidly growing in America – the implications of this poll are clear: President Obama will be reelected in a landslide! [Ed note: sarcasm]

Which treats guests to all of those indulgences that the organization says “suffer extra taxation.” Beer. Cigarettes. Distilled spirits. Prepared meals. And the latest sin: soda…“We had lots of soft drinks, absolutely,” Norquist said. “Sugar and sugar free. And large quantities. We didn’t require that people drink them in large containers, but it was encouraged.”

8. House Speaker John Boehner just can’t stop crying. It’s not clear what exactly caused his latest tears during a White House ceremony, but thankfully, Politico has the research team to compile the last fourteen incidents of Boehner’s public boo-hoos since February 2007, with an in depth breakdowns of what moved Boehner to tears on each occasion. Truly exemplary reporting!

7. Not one to be outdone by Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was upset that the US Olympic team’s uniforms were made in China, so on Thursday he got a little silly when he announced:

“I am so upset that I think the [U.S.] Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves, I think they should be embarrassed, I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.”

6. Speaking of the Olympics, isn’t everyone excited to be annoyed by more political advertising during the games? The heat must be influencing the network executives, who decided to interrupt a seminal piece of Americana (complete with the national anthem and medal ceremonies) with negative political ads – some of the worst “feel great about America” programming our country has to offer.

5. Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. Last Friday, disgraced Michigan Representative and former fringe GOP Presidential Candidate Thaddeus McCotter resigned from Congress citing “a nightmarish last month and a half,” after the media got a hold of a “crude variety show” TV script that McCotter penned:

“Bumper Sticker: Made On Motown” starred McCotter hosting a crude variety show cast with characters bearing the nicknames of his congressional staffers, his brother and a drunk, perverted “Black Santa.” They take pot shots about McCotter’s ill-fated bid for the White House while spewing banter about drinking, sex, race, flatulence, puking and women’s anatomy. It features a cartoon intro and closing snippet with an Oldsmobile careening through Detroit and knocking over the city’s landmarks. The double-finned car has a Michigan license plate reading: “Made on MoTown.”

4. On Wednesday, after two days and many hours of debate, the House of Representatives yet again (ceremonially) voted to repeal Obamacare. As conservative blog Hot Air joked – “Thirty-third time’s the charm?”

3.Democratic Trackers have gone wild! In news perhaps more creepy than silly, Politico reported that Democratic “trackers,” employed to follow and film Republican candidates on the campaign trail around the clock, are now posting grainy, surveillance videos of candidates homes on YouTube. What’s next – an MSNBC or Current TV knockoff of Four Houses?

2. According to Maine Governor Paul LePage, the IRS is equivalent to The Gestapo. Governor LePage made this comparison while trying to equate Obamacare to the Holocaust. When apologizing, he had this to say:

“It was never intended to offend anyone… And if someone’s offended, then they ought to be goddamn mad at the federal government.”

Governor LePage, if it’s possible, that apology makes even less sense than your original offensive comparison. How could you not have scored the #1 Silly Season spot?

1. The Sarasota County GOP will name Donald Trump ‘Statesman of The Year.’ Apparently, Trump’s noted foreign policy expertise and eminent remarks that landed him this prestigious award included:

On Kenya: ”[Obama] said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia.”

One Response

Seems as though your conclusion on what Donald Trump thinks about China is laughable at least.Do you think giving China permanant favoured trade status was a good move for the U.S.?Really?If it was such a sweet thing to do can you explain why this nations imports from China grossly over take our exports to them by 50 billion dollars every 90 days?I can’t understand this coutry’s logic to give away an economy that once flourished,and now we can’t grow because somebody else does the manufacturing for us.Is this a deal,or what?You just don’t get it,do you?You make Donald Trump look a lot smarter when you try and make him look dumb.There are people out here in the world that know America is getting raped by China,and we back Donald’s statement all the way to Washington,D.C.!Republicans and Democrats are both shut mouth when it comes to this subject,but it does not set well with me and many others.Did you know that America’s No.1 export is petroleum products?Did you know that the Keystone pipeline is going to double the export of petroleum products?There are many refineries in the mid-section of the U.S. that could refine fuel via Keystone,but it was never intended to help our dependence on foreign oil.You,along with the rest of the press,are liars!Kiss my rear.